China staged its largest military manoeuvres near Taiwan over the weekend since the Taiwan Strait crisis in August, days after the US passed an annual defence spending bill that authorised up to $10bn in security assistance to the country for the first time.In the 24 hours to Monday morning, 47 People’s Liberation Army aircraft entered the country’s air defence identification zone, with at least 41 flying across the Taiwan Strait median line, Taiwan’s defence ministry said.
This marks China’s third-largest number of single-day violations of Taiwan’s ADIZ, a self-declared buffer zone, and the most since August 5, during week-long exercises that Beijing staged to retaliate against US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei.
China has been steadily increasing the scope and scale of its air and naval operations near Taiwan in recent years, including an elevated level of activity since the August stand-off. But the exercises on Sunday were the first officially announced by the PLA since August.